The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to ponder our loss when we flee the invitation to address the needs of our neighbours.
In the reading from the Book of Jonah, he tries to run away from God.
* [1:1] Jonah, son of Amittai: a prophet of this name lived at the time of Jeroboam II (786–746 B.C.).
* [1:2] Great city: exaggeration is characteristic of this book; the word “great” (Heb. gadol) occurs fourteen times.
* [1:3] Tarshish: identified by many with Tartessus, an ancient Phoenician colony in southwest Spain; precise identification with any particular Phoenician center in the western Mediterranean is uncertain. To the Israelites it stood for the far west.
* [1:14] Aware that this disaster is a divine punishment on Jonah, the sailors ask that in ridding themselves of him they not be charged with the crime of murder. (Jonah, CHAPTER 1 | USCCB, n.d.)
The psalm response is Jonah’s Prayer .
* [2:3–10] These verses, which may have originally been an independent composition, are a typical example of a song of thanksgiving, a common psalm genre (e.g., Ps 116; Is 38:9–20). Such a song is relevant here, since Jonah has not drowned, and the imagery of vv. 4, 6 is appropriate. (Jonah, CHAPTER 2 | USCCB, n.d.)
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus teaches the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
* [10:25–37] In response to a question from a Jewish legal expert about inheriting eternal life, Jesus illustrates the superiority of love over legalism through the story of the good Samaritan. The law of love proclaimed in the “Sermon on the Plain” (Lk 6:27–36) is exemplified by one whom the legal expert would have considered ritually impure (see Jn 4:9). Moreover, the identity of the “neighbor” requested by the legal expert (Lk 10:29) turns out to be a Samaritan, the enemy of the Jew (see note on Lk 9:52).
* [10:25] Scholar of the law: an expert in the Mosaic law, and probably a member of the group elsewhere identified as the scribes (Lk 5:21).
* [10:31–32] Priest…Levite: those religious representatives of Judaism who would have been expected to be models of “neighbor” to the victim pass him by. (Luke, CHAPTER 10 | USCCB, n.d.)
Steve Scholer comments that if we are going to love our neighbor, we cannot stay sheltered in our affluent zip codes but must venture out and see the disparities in our world that limit the freedoms and choices our neighbors are allowed to make each day.
When we see injury and pain, we must not cross to the other side of the road, but rather, act. For what good is it to call oneself a Christian if we are not willing to demonstrate our faith outside the walls of our church?
And we must do our part, as painful as it might be, to urge our traditional neighbors to also see those less fortunate, not as addicts on the street or a lost generation unwilling to work, but as neighbors whom they must love in thought, word and deed. By sharing our financial resources and our most valuable asset, our time, we can demonstrate our true love and compassion for all of our neighbors. (Scholer, 2023)
Don Schwager quotes “God desires to be our neighbor,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"God our Lord wished to be called our neighbor. The Lord Jesus Christ meant that he was the one who gave help to the man lying half-dead on the road, beaten and left by the robbers. The prophet said in prayer, 'As a neighbor and as one's own brother, so did I please' (Psalm 34:14 ). Since the divine nature is far superior and above our human nature, the command by which we are to love God is distinct from our love of our neighbor. He shows mercy to us because of his own goodness, while we show mercy to one another because of God's goodness. He has compassion on us so that we may enjoy him completely, while we have compassion on another that we may completely enjoy him. (excerpt from CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION 33) (Schwager, 2019)
The Word Among Us Meditation on Jonah 1:1–2:2, 11 comments that the Spirit’s “still, small voice”—even when it seems very insistent or “loud”—never stops speaking to us. Through his Spirit, God will continue to nudge us. When we resist him, we may feel like Jonah in the belly of the whale, constrained and alone. But what we are really experiencing is God’s faithfulness and relentless persistence in calling us to follow him.
Is there a situation that the Lord has you “stirred up” about? Is there something he’s asking of you that seems too challenging? Perhaps you feel that you’re too busy and don’t have the time for another commitment. Or maybe you’re afraid of stepping out, and you’re worried what will happen if you do. Keep experimenting with listening to the Lord. If you think he’s asking you to do something, don’t be like Jonah and run in the opposite direction. Take that first step along the path God is showing you. Then see what God does with your willingness!
“Lord, help me to listen to you. Open my heart to hear your voice in every circumstance and to always follow your call.” (Meditation on Jonah 1:1–2:2, 11, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler explains the reluctance of Jonah to preach in Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, that had conquered the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE. Jesus refers to the sign of Jonah that may be his three days in the belly of the whale or the outreach to the pagans of Nineveh. Friar Jude reminds us that in the culture of Jerusalem the Samaritan was usually thought of as a terrorist rather than a neighbour.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, presents South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1931–2021) who envisions God’s dream for the world through a message of hope, justice, peace, and inclusion.
Dear Child of God, before we can become God’s partners, we must know what God wants for us. “I have a dream,” God says. “Please help Me to realize it. It is a dream of a world whose ugliness and squalor and poverty, its war and hostility, its greed and harsh competitiveness, its alienation and disharmony are changed into their glorious counterparts, when there will be more laughter, joy, and peace, where there will be justice and goodness and compassion and love and caring and sharing. I have a dream that swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, that My children will know that they are members of one family, the human family, God’s family, My family.”
In God’s family, there are no outsiders. All are insiders. Black and white, rich and poor, gay and straight, Jew and Arab, Palestinian and Israeli, Roman Catholic and Protestant, Serb and Albanian, Hutu and Tutsi, Muslim and Christian, Buddhist and Hindu, Pakistani and Indian—all belong.… (Rohr, 2023)
We are nudged by the Spirit to see our neighbours and respond to their needs and we must deal with the tension we may experience with indifference.
References
Jonah, CHAPTER 1 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved October 9, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/jonah/1?1
Jonah, CHAPTER 2 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved October 9, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/jonah/2?3
Luke, CHAPTER 10 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved October 9, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/10?25
Meditation on Jonah 1:1–2:2, 11. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved October 9, 2023, from https://wau.org/meditations/2023/10/09/801461/
Rohr, R. (2023, October 9). Hope, Peace, and Justice — Center for Action and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved October 9, 2023, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/hope-peace-and-justice/
Scholer, S. (2023, October 9). Creighton U. Daily Reflection. Online Ministries. Retrieved October 9, 2023, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/100923.html
Schwager, D. (2019, March 9). Go and Do Likewise. Daily Scripture net. Retrieved October 9, 2023, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2023&date=oct9
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